Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Diva dug deep into her bag of tricks to find a fabulous theme for this challenge! Many tangles can be penned without a string. Conversely, many patterns need some sort of string-type-linear-chaperone in order to keep the pen on the right track! I usually start in a corner when doing a stringless tangle on a traditional tile. But for this shape and size, my pen wanted to start in the big empty space in the middle. And so it did!I had so much fun with the first one -black on white. Would white on black be as much fun??? You betcha!

Friday, November 23, 2012

This week's challenge theme (from the Diva) is "Zinger".... a delightful design that Maria* has been penning for years in her lovely art creations. It has since become an official tangle from Zentangle® Central.Deciding on a design for this challenge was difficult. I see "Zinger" as an embellishment to a design, not as the focus of a composition. And with this tunnel-vision interpretation of how to use Zinger, I found it difficult to come up with a plan. ..... then it hit me. This is Thanksgiving week. And my turkey has Zinger-type feathers! (I just love it when a plan comes together.....).

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Zentangle® Central has announced a new fun tangle - "Bunzo" ... and Diva Laura has challenged us to use it in this week's Zentangle or ZIA. This pattern is so fun!Although this has been an unusually busy week, I did steal some time to give this new pattern a try. Being intrigued by the snail-like Bunzo design that Maria created on her tile, I made an attempt to draw a Bunzo variation in a spiral string. Sheez... it was not easy!!! (for me). As soon as I understand how to move the Bunzo lines around so that their relationship (to one another) gives the illusion of movement, I will feel more confident. Drawing this tangle is like dancing... and tapping your toe to the beat of the music. Cha-cha-cha!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

This is a repeat of a challenge we did in May 2011 - and Diva Laura says, "...the challenge is to create a tile or Zentangle®inspired art using Stripes as
your string." The "Stripes" theme has no particular significance - just a fun way to try to squish different tangle designs into a long, narrow string. Now, there's the fun!! I had all good intentions of penning something..... unusual...... with this challenge. But, alas, a ho-hum ZIA was birthed. And, as the Zentangle® folks say, 'it is the process that is important'. This was definitely a good theme for 'process'.The piece perked-up a bit after adding color. (Sorta like a push-up bra perks-up a drab, low cut, ho-hum dress!)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

This is a lovely challenge! Diva Laura has challenge instructions, photos and a short story about the Beads of Courage on her website. Beads of Courage Program website is http://www.beadsofcourage.org/pages/beadsofcourage.htm.Several years ago, the polymer clay guild I belonged to created beads for this program. It was one of the most rewarding polymer clay projects I have participated in. (The other polymer clay program that has captured my muse is Bottles of Hope.) I must admit that my polymer clay has collected lots of dust on the shelf since I found Zentangle®.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Using a string to guide in the placement of tangles (within a Zentangle®) is one of the most unique and clever aspects of the Zentangle® Method of Art. Dots, lines, string, breathe, focus, pen line, repeat pen line...... and so on. Diva Laura explains this week's challenge and offers her beautiful Zentangle® as an example of String Theory v.8.

There is truly no BPS (blank page syndrome) when your string is already created on a pre-strung tile - or when someone else has accomplished the task of string-drawing for you! Really did love the theme of this Challenge. Totally zenned-out.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

This week's Challenge is a UMT created by Maria Vennekens, CZT, from the Netherlands. The Diva's challenge and Maria's breakout instructions of Sankegg are here.This was the most difficult/challenging tangle for me to draw (of all the Diva's 89 weekly challenges). I am still struggling with the concept of drawing Sankegg. Drawing a single row of the tangle was as far as I could go before my work turned into..... alien pen lines! And today is Saturday... so my options were: either post it now or forfeit! So, here it is. I don't usually give a title to my Weekly Challenges, but after I finished the tangle and did the shading, I held it at arms length for a final review and appreciation. That is when I started to laugh so hard that I cried.... and decided to name this piece of art "Gabrielle" ***My final ZIA design was truly a surprise. I don't know WHAT I was thinking!!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

This summer, at the 9th CZT Seminar in Providence, RI, Rick and Maria released a new official Zentangle® tangle. As they have done with other official tangles, they were cleverly cognizant of the "here and now" when it was time to give the new tangle a name. Read more about "IX" and see step-out/instructions here.

This was a hard one for me to sink my teeth into.... but the 'process' (of drawing it) made it all worth while. (It always does!) Breathe, relax, enjoy.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

September 21 is Peace Day.......the International Day of Peace. The Diva's information about this year's Pinwheels for Peace is found here.My ZIA is very plain and simple. Almost looks bare.... like maybe I forgot to finish tangling. But it IS completed.... and hopefully reflects my sentiments.... and thoughts for someday being wittness to "world peace".... (which reminds me of the movie Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock. Remember the Miss Rhode Island contestant? All she wanted was "world peace", too.) Plain and simple: Peace

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The first Monday of the month is reserved for a "home made tangle"** from a randomly chosen Zentangle aficionado. This week we are working with a tangle called "Copada", created by Margaret Bremmer, CZT.

Margaret was in my CZT Class (class #3), and I so regret that I did not get to meet her at that time. Margaret is a fabulous artist. Hope you will visit her website.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Close your eyes - draw a string - now tangle within. The Diva explains her rationale here. I love this kind of challenge. Used some new tangles from TanglePatterns.com, and a couple of not-so-new tangles. Thanks for a delightful challenge.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Love these duo-tangle-challenges! This week, Mooka and Assunta are front and center, dancing around tiles and ZIA's.

Mooka needs practice (practice,practice) - but once your brain remembers how to swoosh the lines up/around/and back, it's really quite fun. Assunta, on the other hand, requires a bit of concentration when plotting the grid.... then, connecting the grid-path is mesmerizing.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

This week, the star tangle pattern is "Brayd" (instructions here), created by the very talented Shelly Beauch, CZT. I have not used this pattern extensively, and now that I've had a chance to study it a bit more by drawing it and viewing the fabulous Zentangles and ZIA's submitted for this challenge, (scroll down to Mr. Linky on the Diva's site), I think I'll be drawing it more. It's so fun! With lots of design possibilities........

While I was pumping gas into my car yesterday, I noticed an interesting design on one of the (many) 'CAUTION-HAZARDOUS-FLAMMABLE' warning stickers pasted to the front of the pump. So, for my string on this ZIA, I penciled my interpretation of that design.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Erin has provided the zendala template - and I just cannot believe the variety of beautifully creative interpretations that have been submitted so far! I'm a bit embarrassed to post mine after viewing those other works of art.

I thought a zendala needed to be very precise..... I mean, the tangle patterns needed to be drawn to fit specifically within the lines/string of thetemplate. This challenge has, perhaps, proven me wrong. If you have not yet viewed the zendalas in this challenge, I hope you will take a minute to do so..... here (then scroll down to Mr. Linky's list).

I used a 3.5" template, and perhaps it was too small for my drawing style. It was frustrating to run out of space within a string segment and not be able to freely draw a tangle. It was very tight! My next attempt may be a larger template. Or, drawing outside the lines is another option. We'll see. I'm not completely convinced that I want to attempt another zendala until I understand the ground-rules. (Darn Type-A personality!!!)

Friday, July 20, 2012

As the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are preparing for the July 27 opening ceremony in London, England - this challenge honors the Olympic motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ~ Swifter, Higher, Stronger. The iconic symbol for the Games isthe five intertwining rings - and at least one of the (ring's) colors appears in every national flag of the participating countries.

While the Diva is in Philadelphia at a medical conference for Moebius Syndrome with her family this week, the guest-challenge-leader is Rho Densmore, CZT. Rho's olympic challenge post can be found here.

To me, the Olympics symbolizes years of work and sacrifice - as the athletes practice to perfect their chosen sport. First the practice, then the celebration! The Olympic celebration!!

"The most important thing is not to win but to take part!"Pierre de Coubertin

Monday, July 9, 2012

Back at Camp Zentangle, Rick and Maria have been busy creating this fabulous new tangle, and they are demonstrating the tangle in a great new YouTube video. They challenged us to: (1) name the new tangle, and (2) deconstruct it and write the step-out instructions. The Diva has more information about Auraknot on her award-winning website.

This is definitely a fun tangle with lots of possibilities and variations. But it does require a good amount of focus and consistency..... with regards to direction when rotating the tile. But, somehow, the result is an intricate, complicated-looking design that sorta resembles a Celtic knot. ﻿﻿﻿

Traditional Zentangle - Sakura Micron Black #01

﻿﻿﻿

Traditional Zentangle - Sakura Micron Black #01 and graphite shading.

Thank you Rick and Maria... and Molly and Sue & Nancy.

Happy tangling........ and thanks for visiting.

ps: this entry is a dedicated to and a celebration of two birthdays that need to be acknowledged, as they happened since my last post... Happy Birthday, Susan ~ Happy Birthday, Christopher... love you very much.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

This week we are using the tangle 'Bridgen', created by Daved Ohl. It's an interesting story about how this tangle pattern was created in Daved's mind. The challenge is to use Bridgen in a Zentangle or ZIA.

This challenge was "work" for me. The design idea/string did not happen easily. Blocked. But I'll do another one and try to loosen-up. Using a familiar spiral string gave me a good start.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Crescent Moon is the first official Zentangle tangle that I learned in an Introductory Zentangle Class given by Maria & Rick in Whittinsville, MA. (Awesome experience.) This has always been the first tangle that I taught in my introductory classes, too. It sort of indicated a "right of passage" for me.... from student to teacher. A bit spiritual. I felt like I had to start my classes with Crescent Moon in order to allow the zen-like aura to take hold and permiate the room.

But I'm a big girl now. And during my big-girl-growth-spurt, I recognized my ability to communicate with my students by teaching them as I was taught. Breathe, relax, enjoy. Dots, lines, string. One. Stroke. At. A. Time.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

This week's Zentangle challenge from the Diva is to use Molly Hollibaugh's new tangle, Pea-Nuckle, in a ZIA or Zentangle tile.

At first, as is my experience with many new tangle patterns, it was difficult to understand the flow of this tangle. So I avoided it. But my right brain finally conceded to the fact that ANY pattern is more easily accomplished as the strokes are repeated. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

And I got so tangled-up in this concept of repetition, that some of my stroke directions went north instead of south! I almost threw the tile into the circular file, but decided to just accept what was appearing before me and finish it !

Monday, May 14, 2012

As our balmy breezes blow and we prepare for a bit of rain on this Monday morning, we are surrounded by the color gray. The Diva's Challenge theme also calls for a color variance within our tangles. Very nice change of direction. No stress. Just use the traditional black ink - and add sepia ink at any point in your ZIA or Zentangle design. Little changes can sometimes make a bold statement. See Laura's expanded comments and instructions here.

My contribution to this challenge is part of a ZIA that I started a few days ago. It's a collage-type design, somewhat similar to Zentangle's 'Ensembles'. I randomly cut apart (sorta like puzzle pieces) an 8.5" x 11" piece of heavy off-white card stock... and will treat each piece as an individually designed tile/piece, with no special intention to have the 'strings' flow from one piece to another. When each puzzle piece is finished, my plan is to reassemble the puzzle (on a colored piece of paper), leaving a space between each piece.

This first piece, done with sepia and black inks, is the right-lower design segment of the collage.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

This is UMT week on the Diva's Weekly Challenge scene. The tangle is called "Groovy" - created by Eden Hunt from Cut'n It Up. We are challenged to use this new tangle in a traditional ZentangleR or a ZIA.

"Groovy" is a beautiful and flowing pattern of gracefully curved strokes. I have always liked this pattern, but shyed away from it because it was too difficult challenging for me to understand it's ebb and flow. Now I understand it a little better..... and will add it to my 'favorites' list of tangles.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Zentangle challenge this week is a Duo-Tangle. Create a tile or ZIA using only two tangles, 'Hybrid' and 'Strircles'. (These are two official Zentangle patterns.) The Diva says: "This is another one of those instances of finding the elegance of limitation." I love these duo-tangles.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

April 22 was World Earth Day, so, as you may have guessed, the Diva has suggested this week's theme to be...... Earth Day. Please see Laura's commentary here.

Wouldn't it be nice if we, each individual human person living on planet Earth, would honor our planet every day by being more conscoius of recycling, water preservation, air purity, trees, plants, rivers, streams, oceans, etc etc etc...........

Friday, April 20, 2012

This week, the challenge theme is to draw a Zentangle or ZIA and add an 'aura' to the tangles.

I love echo quilting.... and echo drawing. And auras add a unique dimension to a tangle. They can be numerous, or 'just a few'. For this challenge, I was feeling that I wanted this tile to be soft - and 'quiet' - as my mind needed to be clear and uncluttered, so I chose a simple and limited succession of echos/auras around my tangles.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This is UMT week, which features a versatile tangle created by JJ LaBarbera. Her tangle instructions are here. The Diva has challenged us to learn "Huggy Bear" and use it in a Zentangle or ZIA.

Huggy Bear can be taken to so many levels and in so many directions. Before I view the other entries of any Weekly Challenge, I complete mine. After my tile is finished, I check-out everyone's little work of art, and I'm always amazed at the different expressions of creativity! The variations of Huggy Bear are just fabulous.

This is my first attempt at drawing Huggy Bear, and I'm adding it to my little book of FDP (frequently drawn patterns). Another fun challenge.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

This week, the Diva is using her 'string theory' as the basis for our tangled design - which means we are all using a common string. After drawing the four outside string/lines (dot-to-dot/corner to corner), that string is then divided into eight fairly equal triangles. And as the tangles cozy-up next to each other, they are forming a symbiotic relationship. Nice.

The resulting 'string design' sorta resembles a folded-paper game we played in elementary school, called a 'Fortune Teller'.

Friday, March 23, 2012

This new tangle from Rick and Maria is called "Fengle" (pronounced fangle).

Laura Harms, The Diva, says: "You may have noticed lately, that a new tangle has been popping up in mine and the work of my fellow CZTs. It's called "Fengle" - and the story goes that it was named after a Sushi restaurant called "Fengs", which is pronounced 'fangs'. So, Fengle should, in theory, rhyme with Tangle? Now it's your turn to get all Fengled up! "

Here is my interpretation of this swirling, spinning, twirling, twisting tangle pattern. I'm still a little afraid of it, so my design is plain and simple (but swirling).

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Tangle 'Paradox' within a 'Spiral'string. This week's theme has been suggested by Marizaan van Beek, CZT. The Diva says: "The challenge is to use spiral together with paradox. Your basic string should be a spiral and tangled with paradox. More than one spiral string can be used. LUCKILY FOR ME (and for you!) this week's challenge will be brought to you by Certified Zentangle Teacher, Marizaan van Beek, all the way from South Africa!"

It took a bit of planning for me to figure out how to tangle Paradox within the Spiral string, while, at the same time, leaving each Paradox pattern to stand on its own. Final results were a surprise to me. Each step seemed to lead me in a different direction. Sorta like the path of life. And in the end, there is something to share.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The theme for the first Monday of the month is reserved for us... [we tangling humans who are creatively enthralled with the art of Zentangle (R)]. The first Monday of each month will feature a home-made tangle, chosen at random. The Diva says: "This week's tangle, called GOLVEN, comes to us from Mariët. GOLVEN is the Dutch word for waves. You can find instructions for her tangle here."

I often visit Mariet's blog. Her flair for the artistic is quite evident. She does such lovely work.

When Mariet first demonstrated her new tangle called Waves/Golven, I diligently gave it a try. I gave it several tries. Although I did not expect it to look exactly like hers, I did expect a reasonable facsimile. Didn't happen. So, I sorta pushed Waves/Golven over to the "Tangles that Frustrate Me" list.

After this challenge was posted, I knew I would give it another try. Then I read Margaret Bremmer's post "Two New Tangles Attempted.....". This was my 'ahh-haa' moment. And as Margaret said, "Then I realized that I hadn't exactly followed the directions!"

I had not exactly followed Mariet's directions!

I was omitting Step 4, which was to heavily shade the corners. So, the secret is to follow the directions, huh? Yep! I love, love, love the way Waves/Golven looks when it's finished and shaded. It's a very lovely and versatile tangle. Thank you, Mariet. Wonderful tangle.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

March 1 is (usually) the 60th day of the year, except in leap year, in the Gregorian calendar. There are 305 days remaining until the end of the year.

A Pisces born on March 1 has strong views on morality yet does not confuse them with deeper, spiritual truths. Their need to understand their motivations is strong, and it defines their character. They are competitive and give their best at every opportunity, always believing that attitude, more than ability, promises success.

Here is my interpretation of March 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the Tangle-a-Day 2012 Calendar....

Sakura Micron Black #'s 005, 01, 03; #005 Brown; graphite shading

On this day in history:
1961 President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
1936 The Hoover Dam is completed.1912 Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Diva says: "This week, try to PUSH yourself out of your comfort zones. Your challenge, should you chose to accept it, is to create a tile or ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) using ONLY TWO TANGLES - Cirquital & Munchin - and nothing else. It's trickier than it seems. "

I wanted to make this a loosy-goosy, free-flowing, non-conforming type of design duo, so I may have given Cirquital and Munchin a bit of variation......, but that is allowed, isn't it? Lol. This was fun.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

A week of celebration....... Mardi Gras! This weekly challenge is the closest I have ever come to celebrating this festival..... and it was, indeed, fun to do the Mardi Gras research! The Diva's challenge goes like this: "Mardi Gras translates to Fat Tuesday - which traditionally was a day to eat rich/fatty foods - to INDULGE... one last Hurrah before Lent began the next day on Ash Wednesday. This week's challenge - create a tile or ZIA using the prompt: Mardi Gras."

I have always been fascinated by "jester" characters in movies. Why? Perhaps because they represented humor and brought a sense of reality to even the darkest of medieval plots. (... and I really hate movies with a dark, morbid storyline.) Maybe 'reality' is not the politically correct word here, but for me, humor & reality are a match made in heaven.